


Silver and Steel

by Nellblazer



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Childhood Friends, Childhood Sweethearts, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Grief/Mourning, Hydra (Marvel), Minor Character Death, Poverty, Protests, Slow Romance, Sokovia (Marvel), Teen Angst, Teen Romance, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:28:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27393520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellblazer/pseuds/Nellblazer
Summary: Moving to Sokovia as a child, you become best friends with Pietro Maximoff but life isn’t always easy in a climate of civil unrest.Commission piece for @a-fanatic-fangirl-requests. Hope you enjoy it darling!*Please do not replicate my work anywhere else without my express permission*
Relationships: Pietro Maximoff/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 68





	Silver and Steel

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Allusions to poverty, civil war, angst, rioting, violence, torture, dubcon kind of, grief, death
> 
> (Possible proof reading errors)

I was only ten when my family moved to Sokovia from the States.

I didn't know much about their line of work, only that my dad was a scientist which I thought was pretty neat as a kid. My mom I had no idea what she did.

They promised me so much to be able to get me to accept the move but I threw a tantrum about leaving all my friends behind anyway and I cried most of the plane journey. When we got to our house though, all thoughts of rebellion left as I saw my new room.

How quickly I got over being in a new country and all it took was a four poster bed and a chest of toys.

School was a different story though. I knew nothing of the native language and although I had some lessons in English, I was encouraged to learn Sokovian too. I couldn't quite get my mouth to work the vowels though and I knew some of the other kids were making fun of me for it. I'd see them snigger and point to me when I'd mispronounce something.

Well everyone except the dark haired boy with bright blue eyes who appeared to be telling them off for it. He scowled, said something with a balled fist and the others walked off.

I wanted to say thank you but he walked off too after giving me a smile.

**

Life got a little easier over the next few weeks as my eleventh birthday rolled around.

I settled into the culture here and although I missed some of the creature comforts of home, I adapted pretty well. Sokovian was still elusive but I wasn't as horrible at it as when I first started.

After a quiet day with just my mom and dad and a cake that was far too big for just the three of us, I fell into a bit of a sugar snapped nap before I heard movement outside and the crash of something metal. I bolted upright, running to the balcony outside my window.

There, going through our bins for scraps was the blue eyed kid who'd been my silent supporter since I got here. Without his school uniform on, he looked skinny, very skinny and cold.

“What are you doing?” I ask and he jumps, falling over onto his ass with surprise.

“Sorry!” he gets to his feet before scrambling away.

“Hey wait!” I call. “You want some actual food?”

He halts, turning as if he can't believe his ears before trotting back and shouting up apprehensively, “You'll feed me? I'm stealing from you though?”

“Stay there! I have cake!” I smile before racing down, cutting a few slices and wrapping them in a box before coming out.

I think he's gone for a moment and I'm stood outside just looking at the tree line. Maybe he was shy.

“Hey?” I keep looking. “Hey are you still here? I have food for you.”

A bush moves as the boy comes out again, inching forward like he thinks I'm going to slam the cakes into his face at any moment. I just hold the box out away from me until he comes up close.

“Take it,” I shove it into his arms.

“Why are you helping me?” he asks, checking the contents and seeing there was indeed some cake in there.

“It's my birthday. I don't have anyone else to share with.”

He stares at the slices for a time before gingerly lifting one out and trying it. When the buttercream hits his tongue, I think he might cry for a second but he smiles really widely instead.

“It's good,” he nods fervently. “Thank you. Can I share with my sister?”

“Yeah! Do you want some other food too? We have so much left over.”

“Please.”

So I slink back into the kitchen and jam all the party food I can grab into boxes before hurrying out as I can hear my dad coming down the stairs. I nudge the boy into the bushes again so we can hide before I give them to him.

“You're very kind,” he marvels at the feast he's gotten. “Father lost his job so we struggle.”

“Look up there,” I point to the back of the garden. “That's my treehouse. I'll leave food in there every evening and you can get it.”

“Why?”

“Because you told them off for making fun of me because I'm bad at Sokovian.”

He smiles, “Their English is not so good so they say mean things. I don't like it when they do. I will come here every night then to get food for me and my sister. Thank you and happy birthday.”

“What's your name?”

“Pietro. Pietro Maximoff.”

“Hi Pietro, nice to meet you. I'd better get inside now. Goodbye!”

I skip back to the house and settle down to play with my new toys but really, the best thing that had happened today is that I'd made a new friend.

**

Pietro started talking to me in school after that, helping me when I said words wrong and he never got bored of me asking questions. He introduced me to his sister not long after my birthday and she was really nice too. I made another friend in her.

One year in Sokovia turned into three and on both of Pietro and Wanda's birthdays, they had a second one at my house and my exasperated parents relented due them being the only friends I'd made here. I'd gift them toys that I had no need for or never wanted in the first place because I didn't have the money to buy them something new but they were grateful and Pietro remarked he'd never seen Wanda so happy.

I'd still put food in the treehouse, as I had done every night per my promise and on the Christmas where Pietro and I were both fourteen, he was waiting for me up there with a smile on his face, cramped in as he was having grown so much in the past year.

“Hey!” I smile. “You're not usually here when I do the drop off.”

“I was waiting for you,” he shuffles over. “Our family managed to scrape money for a good dinner this year so I don't have to go so soon to feed Wanda. It is okay if I stay here for a while?”

“Sure,” I set down the food boxes that he returns every day as well. “Uh, I got you a present.”

This one I'd bought him myself. I'd done gardening and housework to earn pocket money and far from spending it on myself, Pietro was the only person I could think of using it for.

I hand it over and his eyes twinkle both in the string lights I'd put up for decoration and with humbleness. I'd never really noticed how pretty his eyes were before now and I'm not sure why it struck me particularly then.

I'd bought him a phone, the best I could afford and he stared in disbelief at it. It wasn't a flashy thing, just some one with buttons and all but he handles it with great care.

“Why this, miláčku?” he questions.

He'd still never told me what that word meant and nobody would when I asked, they just made this strange kind of 'aww' face and didn't answer.

“So we can talk to each other when we're apart. My dad has these chips that go in it so you don't need to pay any bills. You can call whoever you want for how long you want. I put my number in there already,” I fiddle with my formal dress.

“My father has one but he doesn't let us use it,” Pietro starts tapping away on it. “But I think I have the idea.”

When my pocket makes a noise and I pull my own phone out, I see he's sent me a text message.

**Pietro: Thank you. I'll message you everyday. It'll be nice to say good night to you.**

I look up and he's grinning with his own package for me.

“Why did you get me something?! You don't have the money to!” I whack him gently on the arm.

“Because you're my friend, stupid,” he sticks his tongue out. “Take it! Happy Christmas.”

I open the plain paper box and inside was a necklace that looked homemade. The pendant was made of wire I think and it contained a stone from when we'd go along the river bank and I'd pointed out what a pretty blue colour some of them were.

Now that I thought about it, as I looked up, that exact shade of blue was staring back at me.

“Do you like it?” he prompts. “I made it in workshop class.”

“I love it!” I beam, putting it on straight away.

No one had ever made something for me before. I touched it where it fell on my chest like it was the most precious treasure to me and it was.

“Tell me about your Christmas,” he pats to the comfy area of pillows and blankets I had set up in here.

And when I do, rather animatedly, he watched me with rapturous interest before recounting how Wanda had used the ingredients I snuck her to make a cake for Christmas for the family. I listened with my head in the pillows, content and full and warm and I must've drifted off because the next thing I knew, I woke up and it was dark outside.

“What?” I blink, trying to adjust to the gloom, disorientated.

“It's not time to get up yet,” Pietro slurs sleepily next to me. “It's....shit. It's late!”

He bolts up, checking the time on his new phone. I extract myself from the blankets and watch him panic.

“Wanda will be worrying about me. I'd better get back,” he gives an apologetic smile. “I didn't mean to nap with you, it just looked...uh...what's the word...cosy?”

“Cosy,” I confirm. “Sorry I fell asleep.”

“It was nice,” he says fondly before correcting himself. “Didn't know you could stop talking for that long.”

“Hey!”

“Another time, miláčku. I need to go home. Thank you for the food. I hope it was a good Christmas for you,” he gathers the boxes up in his bag.

“It was,” I touch the necklace on instinct and he notices, looking a little shy before crawling over and giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“See you tomorrow,” he disappears from view.

He'd never done that before but I found I quite liked it. Maybe we were hitting a new level of friendship.

I went back into the house, sneaking past my mom and dad who were drunk and watching movies before going to bed. I went to put the phone on the nightstand but I saw I had two texts from Pietro.

The first read: **You're adorable when you're asleep.**

The second read: **Good night, as promised.**

Just as I was drifting off, it vibrated and I got a third text from him: **Wanda yelled at me for staying so late. It was worth it. Thank you for my present. Now I have you with me wherever I go**.

I was glad no one could see the stupid grin I did as I typed back: **Thank you for my present too. I'm still wearing the necklace. Never taking it off. Good night, Pietro.**

******

Our friendship was close, closer than it'd ever been by the time we hit sixteen but that was the year that Pietro shot to his final height and started becoming broader.

Suddenly he was mobbed by girls at school who took a great interest in him. I understood why, he was attractive and really personable but it didn't make me any less uneasy to see him doing so well for attention.

The rift truly started when he didn't show up at our usual spot for lunch and instead I saw him with Marjeta, the most popular girl in the class. I didn't understand why that hurt so much to see them laughing and joking. I just felt empty.

I got my final lessons done for the day before going straight home. That was the first night in years I hadn't put any food out in the treehouse and I felt bad knowing I was indirectly punishing Wanda too but I couldn't face it.

I felt betrayed he'd blow me off like that.

I thought I'd at least maybe get a text to ask what was going on but seems he didn't even come to the treehouse tonight because he was silent all evening. I sure as hell wasn't going to message him first.

This continued for a few days before Wanda found me sat in the far corner of the lunch hall, miserably picking at vegetables.

“What's wrong?” she sits opposite. “I've not seen you with my brother in ages.”

“Ask him,” I shrug. “Actually, ask Marjeta. He's spending all his time with her.”

“And you're...not okay with that?”

“I'd at least like a message to feel like he's not just ditched me as a friend,” I spear the carrot far more viciously than I meant to and the fork scrapes the plate with a hiss. “But I'm not even worth that.”

“I'll talk to him.”

“Don't bother. I'm not going to beg for someone's time. If you still need food just come to the house and I'll help out.”

“You've done enough for us,” she holds my hands across the table. “Let me do something for you. My brother is being an idiot. I know he cares about you and I don't know why he's doing this. Let me find out.”

“Just don't make it obvious then.”

I'm not expecting much but it's nice of her to offer. I thought I could just shove it out of my mind but as I rounded the corner to go back to class, I saw something that made me feel sick.

Pietro kissing Marjeta.

I think I made a noise because he breaks off and looks at me in alarm. I stare for just a second more before spinning on my heels and walking quickly away.

Thankfully I didn't share any more lessons with him today.

**

The texts started pouring in thick and fast after I got home and didn't stop all night.

Pietro was trying to talk to me, he tried ringing a few times as well but I didn't answer. I didn't want to talk to him.

Now I knew that a girl was more important than our friendship, that he was perfectly okay with disappearing on me for a few days. I just texted back:

**Leave me alone.**

The deluge that followed was immense but I just turned my phone off and lay in bed until the sun went down. I didn't have the energy to move.

I couldn't understand why I felt so bad, why my appetite had just gone, why I was listless. Above all else, I didn't know why I had a physical ache in my chest.

Sure Pietro was going to find himself a partner at some point but I wasn't prepared to be brushed off because of it. I took my necklace off for the first time in two years and put it on the nightstand without ever really glancing at it.

Eventually I swung my legs out of the bed to go and get ready to sleep when I saw a light on in the treehouse. From the way it was moving, I guessed it was a torch.

Grabbing my phone, I turned it on to see so many messages that I had to delete old ones to make room. The most recent ones went as follows though:

  * **Please talk to me miláčku**

  * **I'm sorry I upset you**

  * **Why won't you answer me?**

  * **I'm coming over.**

  * **I'm in the treehouse**

  * **I'll stay here all night**

  * **I don't care that it's cold. I'll stay here until you talk to me.**




I think he saw the light from my phone through the window because the torch blinked in my direction like he was signalling a ship.

I didn't want to be responsible for him freezing to death outside so I put on my warm robe and shoes before running out into the chilly night and climbing up the ladder.

I didn't expect to be met with tears as I crested into the treehouse as Pietro was quietly crying. He looked like he was distraught.

“What do you want?” I say firmly. “It's late.”

“Why won't you talk to me? Why did you run away from me?” he blurts out.

“I'm not the one who stopped talking first, Pietro,” I scowl. “It's been five days and you've not talked to me either in person or on the phone and you stopped coming for food. Then I find out it's because you're playing tongue tennis with Marjeta!”

“I'm sorry,” he crawls closer to me. “I am. I didn't realise I was abandoning you until I saw you right there. You looked so upset, miláčku. I did that. I made you upset. I'm sorry, forgive me.”

“You hurt me, Pietro. I had no idea what was going on because you went silent. I don't think I can forgive you because you'll just do it again when the next pretty girl turns your head.”

“Miláčku, I.....you took the necklace off?”

He's gone so pale as he notices my bare neck. I think then he gets how serious this is.

“Just leave me alone, Pietro,” I make my way back to the ladder.

“I'll stop seeing her,” he offers quickly.

“Why would I want that? She makes you happy. Just...just give me space,” I shake his outstretched hand away. “I'm going to bed now.”

I leave him in the treehouse as I go back inside feeling even worse now. He didn't understand that the reason I was so angry was the lack of communication, he just thought it was to do with Marjeta.

But it was nothing to do with Marjeta....I think.

**

Our feud festered well past when it should've stopped. I think we were both too proud to admit we were wrong. Him for his thoughtlessness and me for my stubbornness.

We were civil with each other but not nearly as close as we had been. Wanda had started to act like our go between and she was beyond exasperated with the pair of us.

Pietro kept dating Marjeta though and she was a physical barrier neither of us could cross. I'd catch him sometimes looking mournfully over at me in the lunch hall as we were on opposite sides and I'd probably given him the same glances throughout the day.

It became very clear to the acquaintances around us that we were miserable. I wish I could've been the bigger person to apologise but I was never that confident and so it dragged on right up until his eighteenth birthday.

By the time that came, I'd even gotten a present in the vain hope that something might happen, that the friendship could be rekindled but the day before nothing was changing and I was too cowardly to take the leap. I just kept to myself.

When his birthday rolled around, I got the surprise of my life to find him and Marjeta arguing in the school yard. It'd attracted quite a crowd as they went at it and then I heard my name being screeched and those at the back of the ring turned to look at me in surprise.

My Sokovian was still not perfect and I couldn't catch it all but I did know that I wasn't being talked about favourably. When the crowd parted to give Marjeta a clear view of me though, she switched to English for my benefit.

“There she is,” she sneers. “I hope she's happy. She got what she wanted. Fucking bitch.”

She storms off to leave Pietro swearing at her back. Those words I _did_ understand.

I just darted away from the scene, feeling the eyes of the whole school upon me. I'd never been so flustered before.

“WAIT!” Pietro's running after me.

He's always been so much faster than me and he catches me easily, spinning me into the tree where I lose my footing and hit the ground hard. Within seconds he's picking me up.

“I'm sorry!” he cries. “Are you okay?! I just wanted you to stop!”

“I'm fine. What the hell was all that about?” I ask, wiping flecks of gravel and dirt off my hands.

“Oh that,” he does that charming smile. “She wasn't right for me. I ended it.”

“You don't seem very upset.”

“She wasn't very nice in the last few months,” he sighs. “Let's go to our old spot. I want to talk.”

“Okay then.”

Now conversation had been breached, I felt comfortable being around him and we sat where we always used to as he flicks away the hair that's getting overlong and falling into his eyes.

“I'm sure you're interested about why your name came up?” he says after a long pause.

“Well yeah.”

“I was very upset that day we fought. I don't think I ever stopped talking about it. While Marjeta and I were dating, I'd keep making comparisons like if she wanted to go to the lake I'd say we used to do that or in a bakery that you used to love the chocolatey things the most. We started to argue about you a lot. It became very tiresome very quickly. She was incredibly jealous.”

“Why didn't you say anything to me?”

“You told me you wanted space so I gave you space,” he shrugs. “I wanted whatever was going to make you feel happy because I felt like shit when you saw me kissing her. Anyway, I was doing something recently that Marjeta wasn't happy about and I realised I'd stopped caring about her opinion any more. That's why I ended it. Hey, at least we're talking again.”

“Pietro?”

“Yes, miláčku?”

“I'm sorry. I'm sorry I was stubborn. I shouldn't have let this go on for so long. It feels really pointless and stupid now.”

“Yes it was pointless and stupid,” he does an arrogant smirk before putting his arm around my shoulders. “But at least we sorted it now rather than never speak to each other again. That's the best birthday present I could ask for.”

The bell rang to signify lessons and he made a disgruntled noise before unwinding from me and helping me to my feet. We didn't have any more classes together today so this'd be the last time I saw him before the weekend.

“Will you come to the treehouse tonight?” I ask him.

“I was already going to come,” he winks before kissing me on the cheek again like he used to and running off for his sports class.

We met in the treehouse later which Dad had helped me extend in the past year so I could comfortably stand up in it. Pietro was a little bit too tall and had to stoop.

“Happy birthday,” I give him the wrapped box.

“You...did you get me this just now?” he seems confused. “Last minute?”

“Uh...no...I was hoping we might be talking by now,” I admit.

“So you still had faith in our friendship,” he nudges me. “I'm already happy then.”

But he unwraps it nonetheless to find a necklace of his own with three distinct charms: one slice of cake, one treehouse, one phone. Reminders of the first important years we had together.

“Miláčku,” he hugs me to him, his voice choked. “I've missed you. You have no idea how much.”

**

Things got a lot better from that point on.

Pietro and I snapped back to the closeness we'd had before almost instantly, much to Wanda's relief. He'd started coming back for food in the treehouse like our old tradition but really it was an excuse to hang out with each other again.

My eighteenth birthday came quickly and on the day, Pietro was there along with Wanda celebrating with my parents. My mom kept giving me knowing glances considering my friend's absence last year but thankfully no one else noticed.

Pietro took me out into the garden soon after, away from everyone. I wasn't sure why until he got a present out from behind his back.

“Happy birthday,” he smiles. “But first I have to say something. The present will either be a sweetener or a commiseration gift depending on what you say back.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, I'm about to be brave here. Give me a moment,” he laughs nervously. “Okay well, here goes. I might ruin our friendship forever with this but...I want to kiss you.”

“My cheek is right here,” I'm confused, pointing to my face.

“No miláčku, I mean _actually_ kiss you,” he moves forward. “Can I?”

“Why?” I blurt out, so caught off guard.

“Because I like you, stupid. Always have done. I just didn't want to destroy what we had if you didn't like me back.”

“What he _actually_ said, way back when he was eleven, was that he was going to marry you,” Wanda passes by with a smirk and Pietro glares at her as she saunters to the treehouse and goes up for a look.

“Well that's embarrassing,” he stares at the floor, rubbing the back of his head with his free hand. “So...uh....what do you say?”

“Why did you date Marjeta if you liked me?”

“Are you listening?” he raps me gently on the side of the head. “I said I didn't want to ruin the friendship, except I kind of did. I should've just said something right?”

Then it just clicked.

The extreme feelings, the constant need to see that smile...I wasn't mourning a friendship when we had our fight, I was mourning what could've been something more. I'd been seeing Pietro in a different light for years now and never put two and two together.

“I think it's present time. This is not going so well,” he puts the package in front of him.

“After you give me a birthday kiss first.”

He doesn't need me to say it twice and gathers me in his arms, his lips meeting mine. It just feels like the most natural thing in the world to do.

“FINALLY!” Wanda says from the top of the treehouse.

“You can go home now,” Pietro calls over his shoulder before turning back to me and when I place my hand on his chest, I can feel the outline of the pendants. “Don't look at me like that. Of course I was always going to wear it and never take it off....unlike _somebody_ I know.”

“I was mad at you!” I protest.

“Open your present, miláčku.”

Another necklace, a fancier necklace. This one looked like silver and had a blue gemstone in a filigree cage.

“Pietro! This looks expensive!” I gape.

“It was. I saved and I saved for it. Always intended to get you a nicer one of the one I made you. That's what me and Marjeta fought about. She thought I'd bought it for her.”

“You got this even though we weren't speaking?”

“Says you,” he pats his chest laughing. “Looks like we had the same idea. A way to be with each other when apart.”

And he kisses me again, he kisses me right up until my Dad finds us outside and gives us the lecture of a lifetime whilst my Mom just sips her wine like she knew this would happen all along.

**

Pietro became my boyfriend after that day and it wasn't a surprise to anyone, as I discovered.

The butcher down the street who used to give Pietro the offcuts as food assistance finally told me what 'miláčku' meant after asking me why I was smiling so much.

“It's like an endearment,” he laughs. “Darling or sweetheart. Boy's been crazy for you for a long time. We've all had fun wondering when you'd both get together. Wait 'til Andrej hears!”

Of course, I gave Pietro shit for never telling me but he just gave that charming smile and distracted me with a kiss.

Now my parents knew, they were a little more wary of letting us both stay in the treehouse together so our time was a little short and strained. We still snuck there anyway and I was used to navigating the garden in the dark now.

I got the idea one day to go to his apartment to surprise him with homemade cake. We'd always met at my house because it was bigger and had some privacy in the treehouse so I'd never actually visited but when I arrived, it didn't exist. This was always the place he told me he lived so I was incredibly confused.

“Excuse me?” I ask a passerby. “Did there used to be a building here?”

She gives me a funny look, “Eight years ago. The war got so bad they dropped shells on this place. Destroyed the street and I had to move. Is this some kind of joke?”

“No, sorry,” I say quickly. “I just...did you know the Maximoffs?”

Her eyes glitter for a moment and then her standoffish relaxes, “You're Pietro's girl, aren't you? The foreign one?”

“I've lived here for eight years now-”

“-it was not a criticism,” she interrupts before smiling. “Your accent gave it away. Yes, I knew the Maximoffs. I was their neighbour. Babysat those two kids sometimes. Awful what happened.”

“What...what happened?”

“About their parents dying of course. Poor little babies got trapped in the wreckage for days after with another bomb. I was at my sisters when this all happened. Did he not tell you?”

“No...no he didn't.”

I felt numb. How could I not have known? When I thought about it though, Pietro had always pretended his family were alive. Why did he lie to me?

“They organise protests now, him and little Wanda against Tony Stark,” she continues on. “Don't worry, lamb, he wants to keep you away from the violence. That's why he's not told you.”

“When is the next protest?”

“Tomorrow, in the square.”

“Thank you,” I walk off feeling like I don't know Pietro at all now.

Hiding his grief? Organising protests? How did he keep this double life from me?

I hid my uncomfortableness meeting up with him later in the treehouse but the next day I marched straight into the square to see a full on riot taking place. The scale of the fighting reached into the market and the army was starting to get involved.

I saw Pietro and Wanda in the middle of everything, throwing bricks at the approaching soldiers. I'd never seen them so angry before; not my suave and smiling Pietro, not my shy and caring Wanda. Their faces were contorted in pure rage as they vented their fury, the plastic shields of the soldiers rattling with each blow.

I was frozen in place until Pietro took a baton to the face and was dragged out of the line of protesters. I could see immediately they were going to make an example of him and Wanda was screaming, trying to get to her brother.

I ran around the square to the army side and dodged through the throng of bodies. I could see punch after punch raining down on Pietro as he curled into a ball to protect himself. I wish I was as fast as he was at sprinting but I got there, throwing my whole bodyweight into the tackle and flattening the soldier on the ground.

“RUN!” I yell to Pietro but he's still too dazed and I try to pick him up but I'm hit around the back of the head with something that has me sprawling.

“You dare try to hurt us?!” a soldier spits as he yanks me up by the hair and I feel strands separating.

When I get a gun pointed underneath my chin, I stop struggling completely. I'd never felt so scared in my life.

“Get off her!” Pietro snarls.

“You get back in line or she dies!” the soldier shouts.

“LET HER GO!”

“GET BACK!”

“Pietro!” Wanda is calling for him. “Come back here! He'll kill her if you don't!”

With the most hateful look I've ever seen on his face, Pietro moves back, spitting blood onto the ground and through the wall of shields to the other side.

“Everyone stand down and disperse!” another soldier shouts.

There's a commotion behind me, a flurry of digital noise and then someone approaches the man holding me hostage. All the while, I'm just terrified the trigger on the gun will be squeezed by accident.

“-she's his daughter,” I catch the other guy saying. “Get her somewhere safe.”

“That boy will cause trouble if do,” my captor grumbles.

“Orders from on high. The boy and his sister come too.”

“You're very lucky,” the soldier says in my ear, groping my waist before releasing me. “Maximoff twins, come here if you want her to live.”

Both of them slip through the wall of shields again and we're grabbed, manhandled into the back of a truck. I try the door but we're locked in and when it starts moving, I pitch backwards into Pietro who holds me tightly.

“Why did you fucking come, you stupid idiot?” he buries his bloody face in my neck. “How did you even know?”

“Your old neighbour,” I reply weakly. “She told me what happened to your parents and what you'd been doing behind my back.”

“Don't say it like that,” Wanda reaches for my hand, the kind expression back on her face. “We were trying to protect you from this. Look what happened when you joined us.”

“And lying about your parents?”

“That was my decision,” Pietro sighs, wincing as he does so. “I didn't want you to feel sorry for us any more than you already did. I knew if you told your parents we were orphans they might put us somewhere else, with a family who didn't approve of what we wanted to do. They....our parents died about two months before you found me in your trash. The food you gave us....it saved our lives. I'm sorry miláčku. I don't like hiding things from you but it was the best way for your safety and ours.”

“Anything else you want to tell me?” I look at them both.

“That I love you?” Pietro laughs. “I was so scared when they had you. I wish you never would've come today.”

“You would've died if I didn't.”

“She's right, brother,” Wanda leans back against the truck wall. “We pushed our luck too hard and made enemies of the government.”

“Fuck the government,” Pietro growls. “They buy American weapons to keep us under control. They help Stark Industries profit off of our misery.”

“And now they're taking us away to kill us,” Wanda gives a sad little laugh. “So much for that.”

“They're not going to kill us,” I say quietly. “One of the soldiers said something about my Dad.”

“Maybe we're getting a ride to your house then. I've always wanted to try that bath you have in there. Huge thing,” Pietro defaults back to humour.

But we didn't go back to my house. When they finally let us out, we were in a concrete bunker with tunnels spanning off into the ground. We walked with guns pointed to our backs into a brightly lit meeting room where my Dad instantly rounded the table to get me in a hug.

“Put those rifles down!” he barks and the soldiers shrink back. “Are you okay?! Your mom couldn't find you and then she saw you on the news.”

“I'm fine. My head hurts but I'm fine.”

“Good,” he nods before reaching over and grabbing Pietro by the shirt. “You! I told you to look after my daughter and you drag her into _this_?!”

“I tried to keep her away, sir!” Pietro puts up no resistance. “I didn't tell her anything about what I was doing. She found out on her own.”

“If she would've needed medical treatment, you never would've been allowed to see her again,” my Dad looks livid.

“If anything serious would've happened it would've been because I died and couldn't protect her any more,” Pietro stands his ground. “You know I love your daughter.”

“Please, my brother really means what he says,” Wanda says timidly. “They were going to shoot him for trying to help her.”

Slowly Dad lets him go and then comes back to me, hugging me tightly, “I was worried.”

“I'm okay, really,” I see him touch the back of my head where there's matted blood and scowl.

The door opens and a high ranking looking man walks in, studying us all before breaking out into a smile I didn't like.

“They're mostly unharmed then?” he asks genially.

“Thankfully,” Dad answers. “This is Baron Von Strucker. He'd like a word with you all.”

“Pietro Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff,” he starts before his eyes fall on me. “And of course your father has told me all about you. I understand you're the ring leaders of the anti-Stark Industries rallies?”

“Yes,” Pietro answers quietly.

“How would you like to sign up for a program that will help take down The Avengers? The group that Tony Stark leads?”

Once again, kind, sweet Wanda disappears and the grief hardened personality climbs out again, “I think we'd like that very much.”

“Is it safe?” Pietro asks my Dad.

“It's safe, son but my daughter will not be a part of it,” Dad's grip on me tightens.

“I need them all,” the Baron's gaze is unyielding. “They form a perfect team. Would you like me to talk to her mother instead?”

I've never seen my Dad react in the way he did then. I may not understand what was going on but I caught the undercurrent of a soft and silky threat and I didn't like it but Pietro and Wanda were too enamoured with the idea of revenge to get the subtlety.

“I'll look after them,” I whisper to Dad and he seems pained but he allows me to follow the Baron and out to the lower levels, holding tightly onto Pietro's hand.

We pass a logo painted on the wall, a skull and tentacles. No good ever came from an organisation with _that_ kind of symbol.

**

We never went back to school or even home.

We lived and slept on the base, training every single day. Physical strength and mental fortitude.

Pietro seemed to explode with muscles in the first month and Wanda got incredibly athletic. I was better at endurance, able to move for longer, to take the pain they dealt out.

They kept the three of us in separate rooms and I never got alone time with Pietro but I could tell he was not comfortable here. I think the most we ever got was stolen kisses in the bathroom for about ten minutes every morning and hidden cuddles to help ease our physical aches.

We turned nineteen, twenty, twenty-one in that place.

We couldn't leave for fear of being executed and Wanda was still holding onto the rage against Stark Industries to keep her going but Pietro was long since disillusioned by the time we were about to turn twenty-two.

All we did was sleep and train, train and sleep. Then the Baron finally came back for us.

They took us into a room with a glowing yellow stone in some sort of contraption and locked us in there. The machine started humming as soon as the door closed.

“I don't like this,” I gravitate towards Pietro and he puts his arm around me and Wanda, drawing us into his body.

“I've got you both,” Pietro eyes the stone with fear but never letting it creep into his voice.

I've got the most horrible feeling we're going to die right now. That whatever this thing was, we wouldn't survive it.

I grab Wanda's hand across Pietro so we're all connected and our head's meet in the middle. Nearly four years of being away from everyone we knew, four years of hard labour and four years of stolen opportunities for romance and maybe they'd decided we weren't worth the effort any more.

The stone buzzed and exploded, energy tearing into us as screaming filled my ears and I wasn't sure if it was mine or the others'. I felt my skin shifting, like it was made of water and my bones sliding against each other but I clung onto Pietro and Wanda right up until the point I passed out.

When I came to, the Baron was standing over us with the biggest grin on his face.

“The experiment's finally worked,” he said.

**

A different kind of testing, a test of skills, of abilities.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed what had happened to Pietro and Wanda. She'd gained powers that allowed her to move things with her mind, to mess with peoples' minds and Pietro was suddenly faster than the eye could see when he moved.

I didn't display any kind of interesting developments from my time in the yellow stone room and I could tell the Baron was frustrated with that. He kept saying I must have survived for a reason.

He chained Pietro to the wall so he couldn't interfere, keeping Wanda in another room also and beat me, beat me so hard I nearly didn't get back up. It wasn't until he threatened to shoot Pietro in the head and then hit me in the stomach with a crowbar that anything happened.

It was like the threat to someone I love triggered a response and the crowbar ricocheted off me harmlessly. When I looked down, I had a swirling silver sheen to my skin where it peeked out from underneath my t-shirt.

“Fascinating,” the Baron remarks before trying to hit me again in the face where the same thing happens. “Like armour. You didn't even flinch. Let's try one more thing.”

“NO!” Pietro screams in his chains as a gun is held right to my forehead and the trigger is pulled.

But....nothing happens. Nothing happens except I hear a small metallic plinking as the crushed up bullet bounces on the floor and I'm completely unharmed.

“Excellent,” the Baron's eyes glitter. “So, the stone gave you the ability to form a carapace around yourself to ward off attacks. Almost like steel plating. It's just at the point of impact though, not a whole body immersion. Fascinating. You've done well. I'll leave you with Pietro for a little while. Here's his key.”

He throws me it before walking out and I quickly unlock Pietro's shackles as he gathers me in his arms.

“What the fuck is this place?” he keeps murmuring. “This isn't what I thought it was going to be. Miláčku, what have I done? I should never have started those protests.”

“You wanted to for your family, don't say that,” I half collapse into his chest.

“And now I've put my family in danger. Wanda has lost herself in this revenge and I'm not allowed to see you. Every night I wish we were back in the treehouse when we fell asleep next to each other.”

“Pietro,” I lean up and kiss him softly, feeling the necklace through his shirt that they only allowed him to keep after we caused a fight. “It's done. We're here now and we're like The Avengers. We can stop any more wars in Sokovia, with or without Hydra. The three of us.”

He buries his face in my hair, “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Then the guards come in and separate us once more while the tests continue as Pietro turned twenty two the next day alone and strapped to a machine.

**

By the time I turned twenty-two, they'd been making us do missions for Hydra.

It became apparent that they were the cause of all the unrest in Sokovia, stoking up both sides of protesters and officials but Wanda still refused to see it. Pietro was still clinging to the belief that we could do some good in the country but I made my discomfort known frequently.

Still we did as we were told upon fear of death. We were young and easily intimidated, despite having unnatural powers.

**Codenames: Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Dragon Knight**

After much studying of my defensive abilities, my own Dad had worked out I temporarily manifested metallic scales like tiny breastplates whenever I was attacked. I got the opportunity to joke that I would rather have breathed fire like an actual dragon to get myself out of here and he broke down in the lab, crying whilst he held me tightly. I got dragged away quickly by the Baron who didn't want to encourage me to have emotional ties. It was a miracle he didn't keep me away from Pietro.

Things reached an ugly peak in the Hydra base when I was thrown into a room with an uninviting looking bed and told to wait. I waited and I waited until they opened the door and in walked the Baron with Pietro behind him.

“What's going on?” Pietro asks, looking from me to our boss.

“You're the first ones to survive our experiments, along with Wanda but you're the first eligible pairing,” the Baron puts his hands behind his back as he explains.

I got his meaning before Pietro did, “You can't-”

“-I very much can. Once we successfully make more new soldiers, we can breed generations of the gifted to help Hydra's cause. No more Avengers, just the many heads of Hydra.”

“You want us to...” Pietro trails off looking at the bed.

“Nothing young lovers like yourself wouldn't have done anyway but there'll be no contraception here.”

“I'm not doing it!” Pietro grabs me and speeds with me to the back of the room.

“You won't leave this room, you won't be fed or watered until you complete your task. I'll even allow you to sleep in the same room after. Wouldn't that be nice?” the Baron smiles. “I know you've been missing each other. We're practically encouraging your relationship here.”

“We have to do this,” I squeeze Pietro's arm, drawing his attention back to me. “We don't have a choice.”

“Miláčku, I....fine, fine we'll do it but we want privacy,” Pietro snarls.

“Done,” the Baron nods before leaving.

I'm not an idiot, I know this place has cameras but just physically being alone made me feel a lot better.

“I didn't want this,” Pietro bangs his fist on the wall. “Not for our first time. Not in this place with a shit bed and our shit situation.”

“Describe it to me then,” I stroke his stubbled cheek. “As we're doing it now, tell me what you had in mind for our first time. I'll imagine that.”

His mouth twitches in a smile despite himself, “First we'd be in your treehouse. It'd be a warm summer's evening so we wouldn't have to worry about being cold. I'd wait for you to come up before grabbing you like this.”

His arms come around my waist.

“And I'd pin you against the wall like this.”

I'm trapped by his body, feeling the press of his thigh between my legs as his lips found mine in a heated kiss. It's not long until I'm rocking against him, wanting more.

We'd barely gotten beyond heavy groping before, always interrupted by either my Dad yelling at us from the house or the guards here trying to stop us interacting. Now it was unrestrained and the pent up energy was boiling over.

“And I'd kiss you like this,” his mouth drags from mine to my neck as I let my head arch back. “And I'd ask you whose girl you are.”

“Yours,” I moan out as he nips lightly at the skin. “Your girl.”

“You're damn right you are,” I can feel the grin. “Now let me see my girl.”

He pulls up the t-shirt, before going to pull at the fabric of the sports bra but it rips apart like paper in his hands. He seems surprised for a moment before laughing.

“The powers are not all bad then.”

Experimentally he wrenches my pants away and my underwear until I'm bare before him. His eyes gleam with delight at his discovery.

“Look at this,” he smirks. “All for me. Aren't I lucky?”

He's just appraising me and it's driving me nuts that he's still fully clothed. I try to pull him to me but he just gathers my wrists in his hands and puts them above my head.

“Oh no, miláčku. I'm not ready to start with you yet. I want to look at you.”

“Pietro! Please!” it comes out so pathetic.

“So in the treehouse, while I've got you pinned,” he continues like he hasn't heard. “I'd get between your legs and just roll my hips. I want to see how much you ruin my pants with how much you want me.”

I never knew this was this side to Pietro but I guess I should've known. There was always a darker element to him once I'd found out about his double life.

When he started moving against me, I made some noise that caused him to growl and the throb between my legs was becoming unbearable. I was canting my hips back to meet his and when he moved back, there was a darker stain on the grey regulation sweatpants.

“I fucking love you,” he snarls, hands curling into the root of my hair.

Quicker than I caught it, he was naked too and I was rushed to the bed. It was a blur of tongues, teeth and limbs as we explored each other for the first time.

“What I imagined next was me tasting you,” he moves down my body, peppering kisses as he goes. “I always thought you'd taste sweeter than the first cake you ever gave me.”

His tongue dips between my legs, swirling in the mess he's created and there's this long drawn out groan that goes straight to the core of me. I'm twisting the bedsheets in my fingers as he devours me with a hunger I'd never have known was possible from him.

Twinges of pleasure keep spiking through me as he relentlessly chases the impending orgasm that's building. Faster and faster he goes until my back is lifting off the bed, my mouth gasping as I reach my end, my cries echoing off the clinical walls.

“Bet you didn't know I could do that,” he smirks, kissing the inside of my thigh. “Definitely sweeter than cake. Ready for me?”

“Yes,” I pant, pulling him on top of me.

“And then I imagined,” he carries on with the fantasy he's creating for us. “That I'd say 'Say you want to be mine and I'm not going to do anything more to you until you do'.”

“I'm yours, Pietro. You know that.”

“I like hearing it,” his voice is rasped with lust. “Let me know if this gets too much. I don't want to hurt you.”

He settles himself between my legs, tip pressed against my slick entrance before easing himself in. The pain was brief, jarring but brief and he stopped once he'd fully seated himself as I tensed up.

“Miláčku, are you alright?” he asks softly. “I didn't...I didn't realise you hadn't....”

“When I think about it, there was never anybody but you,” I whisper.

“And I get to be your first. I get to make you all mine and no one else's,” he gently starts thrusting. “I love you.”

“I love you,” I wrap my hands around his back, encouraging him on, the pain receding into the background to make way for pleasure. “I love you!”

We made this ours, not Hydra's. They could never force us to fake our feelings for one another and we broke their sterile situation and made it a thing of affection.

“Look at me,” Pietro whispers and I obey. “If they ever try to tear us apart, I will kill them all. I will do anything to keep you safe. Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” I nod.

He picks up his speed before I see a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes and the superhuman speed kicks in as he angles his thrusts in a way that has me seeing stars. I'm carving grooves into his back as I reach a peak again and he lets out a low cry as he joins me. I feel the strange sensation of warmth flooding me as he does.

In one swift roll, I'm on top of him, lying on his broad chest as he trails kisses across my forehead. I was sore but I was content and Hydra hadn't taken the specialness of my first time away.

“And then I would wrap you in blankets and we would sleep curled into each other,” Pietro finishes the fantasy. “Me and my girl. Just us in our treehouse away from the rest of the world.”

**

They allowed Pietro and I to live together under the conditions we kept a sexual relationship going.

We did but not for them, for us. We couldn't keep our hands off of each other once the initial dam had been broken. At night, in the morning, in the shower, everywhere.

It was the one bit of happiness we had, until the Avengers came.

I'd just remarked how I would have to dye Pietro's hair again because his roots were coming through when there was an explosion in the base.

We ran to the source of it to find a full scale battle raging below. We were about to escape with Wanda when Iron Man burst through a wall. In that instant I saw both the twins' faces fall to darkness.

“Leave it,” I pull on Pietro's arm. “We have the chance to be free. Please.”

“He's right there,” Wanda snarls at me. “We can kill him.”

“And if he kills you?!” I raise my voice. “He's got far more experience at this than we do! Let's go and do this a different way!”

They've never seen me get firm before and Pietro's rage dies in his eyes as he accepts my words but Wanda just shakes her head.

“Then both of you go. I'll meet you soon,” she blasts us to the stairs. “I need to fetch something.”

I'm tucked into Pietro as he races out of the bunker, all my breath leaving me. We barge into somebody by accident and before I know what's going on, I feel my powers activate before something pings off and I see an arrow go spinning away.

“BASTARD!” Pietro roars as he flips my attacker over and throws him down the stairs.

“I'm fine! I can't be hurt,” I tug at his arm. “Come on!”

“We wait for Wanda.”

I have to spin Pietro around to take the next arrow that flies straight at his back. The archer, I saw, was Hawkeye who was getting to his feet.

“Get him here,” I call and Pietro speeds off to deposit the whiplashed Avenger in front of me.

Another perk of my powers was that I could now call the metallic armour into my fists at will and I hit Hawkeye hard across the face so that he pirouetted before dropping to the ground unconscious.

“See, we could take the Avengers if we wanted to,” Pietro laughs, prodding Hawkeye's body with the tip of his shoe.

“You really want to fight Thor?”

“Okay, I get your point,” he huffs as Wanda finally joins us.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“Fine, fine. I just want to get out of here,” her eyes look a little dead.

We escaped from Hydra that day, only to return to my home and find it ransacked and ruined. I never expected to find the skeleton splayed across the kitchen counter that was wearing my mom's jewellery and clothes and I just collapsed on the floor.

They'd killed her anyway. It didn't matter how well behaved I was in the Hydra base.

I got to the lounge, only to find the rotting body of my father too, still wearing his lab coat.

Pietro had to carry me into the treehouse as it was the only place I felt safe. All three of us huddled in there as the twins comforted me and it was dawn before I drifted off between them, the only people who knew my pain right now. My other family.

**

Ultron found us in my old house when we'd cleaned up and started trying to make a life again.

Wanda was still angry, twisted by Hydra's hate propaganda but I was disillusioned by what had happened to my parents. Pietro kept in the middle of the two sides but when we were alone in my childhood bed, his true feelings on the matter would come out.

“I'm tired of fighting against everyone,” he'd whisper as he held me in the dark. “I don't have it in me any more to be angry.”

And still, when Ultron came with his offer to wipe out both sides, the Avengers _and_ Hydra, the twins accepted whilst I hesitated.

“I need you all,” Ultron's honeyed words enveloped me. “No more wars. Just peace but peace the right way, where warmongers are wiped out and true joy can bloom. I know you want that. You want a life with Pietro and the family that comes with it. Even as a machine I can understand that dream.”

“Say yes, please,” Wanda begs me. “Do this for us and you can have your happy life with my brother, I swear it.”

“Pietro?” I ask because he's remarkably quiet.

“No more wars, miláčku. We have to.”

I felt uneasy but I agreed to Ultron's request. Even if I didn't fully trust him, I had to take care of the twins as much as I could. They'd do the same for me.

**

Betrayed. We were betrayed.

Ultron never intended to help us, only wipe humanity out. Wanda found out when he was trying to upload himself into a vibranium body.

We defected to the Avengers at that point who treated us much better than we expected. All the illusion of Tony Stark as some weapons tycoon dissipated upon that first meeting and although it was tense, an alliance sprung from the frank admission by Tony that he hated his legacy as much as the twins did.

Now we were here in Novi Grad as it rose into the sky, battling hard against Ultron's army. The three of us had split up, Wanda supporting the Avengers directly against Ultron whilst Pietro and I evacuated the city as best as we could.

I saved citizens from robots, from collapsing buildings and flying schrapnel, shielding them with my body and destroying enemies with my fists. I had a healthy percentage already on the helicarriers.

Ironically I had to throw myself in front of Hawkeye who was in the firing line and he just laughed through the situation.

“Just don't punch me again, okay?” he smiles.

“Yeah sorry about that,” I give an apologetic shrug before I hear a shot and see Hawkeye's expression fall as he looks past me.

I turn and felt my world crumble as Pietro staggered for a moment in front of me and then dropped to the ground.

“NO!” I yell, running over to him and seeing red staining his blue shirt. “PIETRO!”

I gathered him in my arms, trying to rouse him as he struggled to breathe, his face turning pink. I didn't know what to do. Nobody could help us in time and Novi Grad was still climbing into the air.

“Don't leave me!” I hold onto him desperately. “Not now! Not after everything!”

“M....miláčku,” he smiles weakly. “Tell me...you...love me.”

“I love you, Pietro,” tears are falling now. “I love you so much.”

“Hey,” his trembling hand strokes my cheek. “I always said I would...would marry you someday. How about it? Marry me?”

“If you live, I'll marry you tomorrow,” I squeeze him tightly.

“That's nice,” he smiles before bolting upright and scaring the life out of me. “Guess we're engaged then.”

It takes a few moments for it to settle in my brain before the exclamation bursts out of me.

“WHAT?!”

He reaches into his top to pull out the experimental bullet proof fabric Hydra had developed and waves it in front of me. Then he gets a ketchup packet from his back pocket that he'd had from our food earlier in the day and just grins.

“YOU ASSHOLE!” I hit him and he winces. “WHAT THE FUCK?!”  
“Hey!” he fends me off. “I really did get shot and it doesn't dispel the impact completely. It still hurts.”

“GOOD!”

“Miláčku, I was just playing with you!” he laughs. “It seemed like a good time to ask you. Life or death situations put things into perspective.”

“I hate you so much, Pietro Maximoff. You just took ten years off my life with that stunt!” I smack him again in the shoulder.

“Hush, you love me. You said so yourself,” he holds me to him and I give up struggling as I just process that I'm happy he's alive.

“You've got some balls kid,” Hawkeye shakes his head near us. “If I tried that with my wife, she'd string me up by the testicles.”

“I still might,” I growl. “Thanks for the idea.”

“Time to go. Cap's orders. The city is gonna fall soon,” Hawkeye helps us to our feet.

So we run to the nearest helicarrier and get aboard, along with Captain America and Wanda and many other civilians.

“You're both okay,” Wanda hugs us.

“Better than okay,” Pietro's still beaming. “We got engaged just now.”

She blinks in shock.

“Your idiot brother pretended to be dying and asked me,” I roll my eyes.

“That's low even for you,” Wanda wrinkles her nose. “You didn't need to trick her into saying yes.”

“It worked,” Pietro shrugs. “Now I get the wife I've wanted since I was a kid. Win win.”

Wanda and I just gave each other exasperated looks as Pietro put his arms around us both and the carrier descended to the ground.

**

It took a month or so for things to settle back down. Relief efforts in Sokovia were slow but with Hydra gone, the unrest had stopped. People were banding together to rebuild.

We went back to my family home, which was on the outskirts of the chunk that had been gouged out of the city, and finished the restoration we'd begun before Ultron came into our lives. We got every room back to its former glory with the money Tony Stark had given us as reparations, even though he really didn't have to. I think he felt guilty about his former empire still.

Wanda didn't stick around long. She said she needed a new purpose and the Avengers gave her some, plus she wanted to give us some space to truly be a couple. We'd spent nearly five years as a trio after all.

She stayed for the very small wedding which was just us three and the neighbour who babysat them as kids. I ordered the cake from the very same bakery where I'd gotten my eleventh birthday one from which earned laughs from the twins.

Officially, I was a Maximoff now.

We all cried the day Wanda left for America but she was always a phone call away and we'd keep in touch every day.

Pietro and I spent the first night without her in the treehouse, newly built to accommodate his height and we huddled in the blankets like we had done all those years ago. He played with my necklace that'd never left my neck since he gave it to me and then the ring on my finger.

“We can finally have our peace,” he gives me a warm smile. “You and me. It was always supposed to be like this.”

And we kiss and the kiss turns into something more in the sparkling lights wound around the ceiling beams.

“Tell me you're mine, miláčku,” he gently growls as he's on top of me, bare skin burning against mine.

“Always yours, Pietro. Always will be.”


End file.
